This invention relates to machine tools and provides means by which heavy work pieces are moved into and out of machining position secured by a chuck or vice, or to a face-plate or the like. It is very often difficult and awkward to move heavy work pieces into and out of machine tools such as lathes, milling machines, drill presses, and the like. The well equiped machine shop may or may not have an overhead crane, chain-fall or hoist; and these facilities are often ineffectively placed and/or not accessible to the particular machine tool involved. Furthermore, apparatus such as cranes, chain-falls and hoists are slow in operation and do not expedite the process of loading and unloading a machine tool with work. Time is of the essence! For the machinist to load and unload by hand is backbreaking when heavy work parts are involved, and injurious to his well being, for example when handling numerous heavy work pieces at frequent intervals of time. Therefore, it is an object of this invention to provide a work transport for machine tools that carries heavy work pieces into and out of working position in the machine tool for the machining processes to be performed.
Machine tools are characterized by an axis about which the work or a cutting tool is turned, and by a chuck or faceplate or fixture to secure the workpiece for the machining process. In a lathe the workpiece is turned on an axis while secured in a chuck or to a faceplate or fixture, with the cutting tool or bit moved through cutting patterns by a carriage and its various tool positioning features. In a milling machine the workpiece is secured to a carriage or table by a vice or chuck or fixture, with the cutting tool, mill, bit or cutter turned by a spindle on various axes. Drill presses and other machine tools have equivalent features, with respect to the workpiece being placed therein as hereinafter described. Therefore, it is an object of this invention to provide a workpiece support for universal application to the carriages or work tables of machine tools of the character under consideration, a support for moving heavy workpieces into chucking, faceplate, vice gripping or fixture position, all as circumstances require.
Difficulty is encountered when a machinist must manually transport a heavy piece of work over the bed or table of a machine tool and into alignement with the spindle. In a lathe it is the turning axis that must be reached, and in a milling machine it is the spindle axis that must be reached; and the equivalent in other machine tools. The physical posture of the machinist in cantilevering a heavy workpiece is unatural, and destructive to his physical well being. Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide apparatus that receives or delivers workpieces alongside the machine tool, and that delivers or receives workpieces from the turning axis, as the case may be. With this invention, the physical posture of the machinist is erect and it is no longer necessary for him to cantilever the workpiece weight from his natural standing posture. That is, the workpiece is loaded, or removed, by the machinist into the work transport means, outside of the awkward confines of the machine tool, from which position the workpiece is transported to and from the work process position.
The configuration of workpieces varies greatly, and the turning center or cutter axis is not always the same. Therefore, it is an object of this invention to provide adjustability with respect to the turning axis and/or to the cutter axis. It is another object of this invention to provide for a rough adjustment of the height at which the workpiece is transported into substantial alignment, and it is still another object of this invention to provide for infinitely variable adjustment of the height at which the workpiece is transported into exact alignment. With this invention, there is rough height adjustment means and there is fine adjustment means. The lateral position and horizontal angular position of the workpiece axis is also a feature of this invention both of which are infinitely variable.
The present invention is to be distinguished from cranes and hoists and the like, which lift from above, and is characterized by a undercarriage type of support that extends into and retracts from the work position in the machine tool. To these ends it is an object of this invention to provide articulation means for the lateral transport of workpieces into and out of alignment with a work placement position. With the present invention, there are inner and outer arms, and the radius of at least one of which involves right-left radius adjustment means. In practice, the right-left radius adjustment means is an adjustable link disposed between the inner and outer arms, so that the work transport can be adapted to either the front or back of the machine tool. The entire apparatus is installed upon a machine tool by means of a base attached to the carriage or ways or table etc.